This application relates to the field of food preparation, and more specifically involves spoon type implements used to stir by hand a variety of liquid based foods.
The art of food preparation has involved the use of the typical spoon or ladle for countless centuries. Ingenious modifications to the ancient plan of a handle with a scoop fashioned on one end have invariably involved either concavity shapes or thermal resistant materials. Recent U.S. Pat. No. 05,960,891 involves a utensil with the usual spoon on one end of a standard handle and a cutting implement on the handle""s other end. Relative to the tasting operation, whereby a chef lifts a portion of the food to the mouth and samples the cuisine under preparation, hygienic measures have not been addressed to the spoon itself. In this modern age, the accepted method is to have small disposable spoons handy for this purpose, which are either discarded after use, or collected in a bin for cleansing and subsequent reuse.
It is therefore accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a hygienic kitchen spoon with a means to allow the chef to sample stirring-assisted foods at various stages of preparation without undue introduction of a portion of the the chef""s current colony of oral bacteria in the process.
It is further accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a hygienic kitchen spoon with a means to somewhat cool the food portion used in the sampling process as a benefit to the chef""s culinary endurance.
It is further accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a hygienic kitchen spoon with the tasting end modified with an upward projecting retaining barrier for occasions where the chef allows the cuisine to flow too rapidly down the handle into the smaller end, and to force the chef to sip from a side of the tasting spoon rather than insert the entire tip end into the mouth.
The introduction of active contaminants from an ill chef to the food has always been a concern in food preparation, whether commercial or domestic in nature. This has long been complicated by the need of the food preparer to constantly sample the progress of the cuisine to get it right. With expediency being sacrificed to human nature the chefs are often guilty of placing their own interest to get the job done above that of maintaining good hygienic procedures.
The invention involves the placement of a smaller second spoon on the second end of a handle specifically modified to allow cuisine to flow by gravity under operator control from the stirring end to the second end. A finger-activated gate normally open can be closed and isolate the captured portion further. To do this a single pivoted lever pushed upward could drop the other end acting as the gate. This would allow a momentary means to keep excess cuisine from flowing back down the handle before it can be dumped into a nearby cup or some such receptacle dedicated to this purpose.
A non heat-conducting insulative material can be used for the entire spoon, or as is sometimes done for the neck portion only as a means to keep the chef""s fingers from being scalded by heat transference from the pot. However, proper selection of material also allows the cuisine flowing along the neck to lose heat to the benefit of the chef""s mouth.
Because thumbs tend to grasp handles on the top, a small plate can be snapfitted over the region in question to insure comfort and to prevent the thumb from coming in contact with food moving along the channeled portion.